1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hunting decoys, and more specifically, to tail decoys and movable animal decoys.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Decoys of great variety in construction and purpose have been used to lure turkeys into range for effective hunting, harvest, and/or observation and study. While decoys often provide a life-like appearance, it has also been desirable for obvious reasons to make the decoy move in a life-like fashion in a manner that is exhibited by the represented animal. Faced with this challenge, practitioners in the art have endeavored on many occasions to so motivate a decoy. Previous attempts to create a realistic and effective decoy include:
Samara, U.S. Pat. No. 6,092,322, discloses the use of a wind activated animal decoy. Specifically, the use of a turkey decoy with tail-feathers, which upon wind activation, causes the head to move up and down and side-to-side.
Brint, U.S. Pat. No. 6,070,356, discloses the use of a full body turkey decoy, having a tail, which uses a battery-powered electric motor and internal counter weights to simulate strutting turkey behavior. Furthermore, the invention shows a turkey decoy that, upon activation, causes the decoy to rotate intermittently on a support rod and also causes tail vibration.
Lenz, U.S. Pat. No. 5,884,427, discloses a battery-operated animal decoy mechanism having a motor. The motor has at least one projecting member which activates a tail flicking attachment, thus simulating the tail flicking of a live animal.
It is well-known among turkey hunters that during the turkey mating season, male (gobbler) turkeys attempt to find female (hen) turkeys with which to breed. This results in gobblers initiating a mating ritual involving the display of their tail-feathers, while moving them from side-to-side in what is known as a full strut. The gobbler""s full strut is meant to attract the hen to the gobbler for potential mating. Similarly, other animals, such as deer, elk, and squirrels, also use their tails to attract their respective mates.
Prior art decoys suffer from various drawbacks, in that imperfect conditions and inherent limitations in the design and surrounding environment generally cause these decoys to exhibit a typical or unrealistic movement which may startle or warn the animal or may have no effect whatsoever. Prior art decoys designed to move with nature""s forces (as disclosed in the ""322 patent, for example) lack controllable manual-motion. Similarly, the motion exhibited by electronically operated decoys (as disclosed in the ""356 patent, for example) is generally not representative of mating rituals. Also, motor-driven decoys have an amount of noise inherent in their operation that results in animals being scared away from the decoy and the immediate area. Additionally, unfavorable weather (e.g., rain, dampness, coldness, etc.) may adversely affect electronic components through corrosion and condensation. Furthermore, electronic mechanisms tend to wear down the power source (usually batteries) required for the decoy""s movement, relatively quickly. This may result in the decoy failing to operate at critical times during the hunting period. Moreover, some states and hunting associations do not permit the use of electronically controlled decoys. Finally, prior art decoys fail to provide a means of portability, thereby, not allowing a user to change the decoy from a use-mode to a portability-mode in an efficient manner.
Due to these drawbacks and limitations, the aforementioned prior art is generally non-conducive to hunting wild animals.
Accordingly, what is needed, and has not heretofore been developed, is a manually activated, realistic decoy apparatus that simulates the natural movements inherent to the rituals of various animals. Field work using the present invention has confirmed that decoy movement is critical to the believability of the decoy""s authenticity in the minds of the animals that may observe it. Furthermore, within a dominant animal""s territory, if another animal attempts to lure the dominant animal""s females, the dominant animal becomes upset and approaches the challenging animal to re-establish dominance among the females. Therefore, decoy movements may be used to not only attract females, but also males.
Therefore, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a decoy apparatus that through controllable manual motion produces a natural, isolated movement.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a decoy apparatus which is portable, lightweight, requires only a minimal number of elements, and requires only a minimal number of steps to utilize. This results in efficiency in set-up and preparation of the decoy, a critical aspect in hunting. Unlike the prior art, lighter components may also be utilized, such as arrow shafts, thereby resulting in a lighter and easier to carry decoy apparatus. Furthermore, the use of guide shafts allow the decoy apparatus to be used over and around varied terrain and obstacles, while also preventing the animals from tripping over the pull line utilized in the present invention.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide such a decoy apparatus which utilizes real tails, as adding detail to the decoy, in order to draw animals to an even closer proximity, as compared to the use of artificial tails.
It is a further object of the present invention to allow the user to maintain a suitable distance from the decoy apparatus, while still achieving full operability over the invention.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a decoy apparatus which may be adapted to move not only the tail, but an entire decoy body.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a lightweight decoy apparatus, which is simple and inexpensive in its design and construction.
The present invention provides, in the preferred embodiment, a manually movable decoy device adapted for luring animals comprising a tail attachment member, a tail shaft, a ground shaft, and a decoy attached to the tail attachment member. The decoy may be comprised of a tail-feather, an animal tail, or a first decoy body. The ground shaft, connected to the tail shaft by a spring mechanism, rotatably supports the tail shaft. A pull line is attached to the pulling arm of the tail shaft. After insertion of the decoy device""s ground shaft into the ground, a second decoy body may be optionally inserted into the ground, forward and adjacent to the decoy device. Optional guide shafts may be inserted into the ground to route the pull line. The pull line may then be manually pulled to rotate the tail shaft assembly with respect to the ground shaft in a reciprocating manner, thereby causing controllable movement of the decoy. A plurality of brackets affixed to the tail attachment member, are adapted to retain the tail shaft, the ground shaft, and the guide shaft in a carry-mode configuration. Additionally, a carry cord is removably connected to the tail attachment member to allow a user to easily transport the entire decoy device. The foregoing and other features of the method and apparatus of the present invention will be further apparent from the description which follows.